U2 was all set to play a prestigious rock venue across The Pond. The rock band was slated to headline the initial night of the Glastonbury festival, Britain's answer to Woodstock.
It was then that Bono and company met up with a pack of protestors, who were expressing their displeasure with the Irish band's tax strategies and who are presently engaged in a campaign that is a variation of the Democrat's "Tax the rich" ploy; in this case, it's "Tax Bono and his rich rock star buddies."
And rich they are. Forbes estimates that U2 brought in almost $200 million from last year's touring.
A group known as Art Uncut initiated the protest campaign. It launched a large 20-foot inflated balloon, which carried the written message: "U Pay Your Tax 2."
Security guards eventually wrestled protestors to the ground and deflated their balloon. But the damage had been done. The legendary group and its famed lead singer, Bono, who is well known for his anti-poverty activism, stood accused before a crowd of 170,000 people of avoiding the payment of taxes.
Art Uncut sought to highlight the fact that U2 has escaped paying Irish taxes at a time when Ireland has been forced to deal with a severely debt-burdened economy.
Art Uncut member Charlie Dewar told the A.P. that tax money in U2's bank account "should be helping to keep open the hospitals, schools and libraries that are closing all over Ireland."
It was in 2006 that U2 moved its corporate headquarters from Ireland to the Netherlands.
Unlike in Ireland, where music royalties are taxed, the Netherlands is a jurisdiction where the tax on music royalties happens to be zero.
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